This lecture serves as an introduction to early modern English comedy. It begins with an elucidation of contemporary conceptions of comedy and laughter and concentrates then on Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Ben Jonson’s Volpone, Thomas Middleton’s and Thomas Dekker’s The Roaring Girl, in order to examine salient generic features, such as stock characters, intrigue, disguise and deception, wit and wordplay, farcical situations, the reinstatement of social harmony or justice at the end of the plays. The consideration of comic devices and how they are employed to entertain and to subject follies and vices to criticism will yield insights into the role of comedy within early modern English culture. The discussion of the comedies will draw attention to various critical approaches in this field and comment on their explanatory reach.
Participants are advised to work with the following editions of the plays. Primary texts will not be provided in any other form.
William Shakespeare. Twelfth Night. The Arden Shakespeare Third Series. Ed. Keir Elam. A&C Black, 2008. ISBN-13: 978-1903436998
Ben Jonson. Volpone. Revised Edition New Mermaids. Ed. Robert N. Watson. Oxford University Press, 2009. ISBN-13: 978-1350007796
Thomas Middleton. Four Plays. New Mermaids. Ed. William C. Carroll. Methuen, 2012. ISBN-13: 978-1408156582
Assessment/requirements: test at the end of term
- Kursleiter/in: Uwe Gerd Klawitter